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Jeremiah Burroughs
Jeremiah Burroughs
The Evil of Evils, first printed in 1654, consists of sixty-seven short chapters that expose sin and urge believers to choose affliction over sin. Burroughs organizes his material around seven major thoughts: (1) there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction; (2) sin and God are contrary to each other; (3) sin is directly against our good; (4) sin opposes all that is good; (5) sin is the evil of all other evils; (6) sin has infinite dimension and character; and (7) sin makes us comfortable with the devil. This treatise is invaluable for sensitizing our consciences to the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” (cf. Rom. 7:13).
“I think among all the treatises of this blessed man, Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs (now triumphing in glory above all sin and sorrow), which have been received with so much acceptance among the saints, there has not been presented to your view a more practical piece than this now in your hands. And though various divines have written and spoken much concerning this subject, yet, in my poor judgment, this out-does all of this nature that ever my eyes beheld, setting forth with life and spirit the subject in hand and bringing it down powerfully in a practical way to convince the judgment and work upon the affections of the weakest reader.”
John Yates (d. 1657),a Puritan preacher of the Norfolk area
JEREMIAH BURROUGHS (1599-1646) was a member of the Westminster Assembly and a prominent preacher among Congregationalists.